Description

What our Science Fair Projects STEM lesson plan includes

Lesson Objectives and Overview: Science Fair Projects STEM provides a step-by-step outline that students can follow to come up with research projects or experiments. Students will follow the scientific method steps to create a presentation that is suitable for a science fair. This lesson is for students in 5th grade and 6th grade.

Classroom Procedure

Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the yellow box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand. This lesson requires no supplies, but you will need to ensure students have internet access.

Options for Lesson

Teacher Notes

The paragraph on this page provides a little more information or guidance on what to expect from the lesson. It explain that having students work in small groups will help them learn to be part of a team. Understanding and executing a project will also help them as they progress through their science career. You can use the blank lines to record any thoughts or ideas you have as you prepare.

SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS STEM LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES

The Science Fair Projects STEM lesson plan has one page of content that lists and explains the steps for creating a project. First students must identify a problem. Then they have to come up with a hypothesis to address that problem. Once they conduct their experiment, they will form a conclusion that explains whether or not to accept their hypothesis.

Steps of the Project

In more detail, the first step is to write the problem in the form of a question. This is the question they will seek to answer through their science fair experiment. Students must remember that the problem needs to be a question for which they do not already have an answer. They must be able to find the answer through their experiment.

The hypothesis they formulate must be an educated guess written as a declarative statement. It is an idea that they can test through the experiment. Usually, a hypothesis is based on previous research into a topic or idea. The lesson suggests that students state their hypothesis as an in-then-because statement.

After the experiments, students will learn whether or not they answered the problem with their hypothesis. They should explain in their conclusion any problems they encountered along the way. For instance, did a cat dig up or knock over a test plant? Essentially, they should discuss any challenges they faced and how they overcame them.

Each component of a project for a science fair is essential to the overall presentation. Students must understand that if they are missing a piece, people will not fully understand what the students did. They should be careful not to make their project too complicated. Instead, they should stick with the simple.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

The experiment is one way to test the hypothesis. Students will only test one variable while all other factors are controlled. Part of the experiment involves identifying the test subjects—plants people, soil, etc. Students must also determine what they are testing or experimenting on. They should describe the control group, the part of the experiment that remains the same. Then they can use the control as a constant with which to compare the results of the dependent variable.

Next, they should describe the experimental group, which is the group or thing on which they are experimenting. They will describe the dependent and independent variables to identify the change they are making to the experimental group. In addition, students should describe the methods they will use to control the variables. Will they use the same size or height of their subjects each time? Will they have a temperature-controlled environment to ensure the same temperature?

Students will also explain what testing equipment they will use for their project. They should also provide a detailed, step-by-step description so that anyone could easily and completely replicate the experiment.

SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS STEM LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS

The Science Fair Projects STEM lesson plan includes three worksheets that all relate to the project students intend to do for the science fair. Each one will help students solidify their grasp of the material they learned throughout the lesson as they organize the information. You can refer to the classroom procedure guidelines to know when to hand out each worksheet.

PICK A PROJECT ACTIVITY WORKSHEET

The first step students need to follow is to pick an idea for a project. For the activity, students will research topics and come up with three possible science fair project ideas. The worksheet provides three spaces for them to write out their ideas.

SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT STEM PRACTICE WORKSHEET

The practice worksheet provides a template on which students can fill out all the information they gather on their chosen idea. They will write the problem in the form of a question. They will then write their hypothesis as an if-then-because statement. The rest of the prompts relate to the experimental design. Students will identify the test subjects, describe the control and experiment groups, explain the variables, and so on.

STEP-BY-STEP HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

For the homework assignment, students will record each step they follow throughout their experiment. There are two pages of steps listed with a total of 25 steps. Students may not use all the steps, or they may need to add some.

Worksheet Answer Keys

This lesson does not contain answer keys given the nature of the topic.